Hey guys! Here is the next chapter to our story! I hope that you all have been enjoying the story so far! I'm SO sorry for not updating these past few weeks, I've been busy with a project for school and I was sick. Anyway, on with the story! :D

It has been a few days since Ayla was taken and she was beginning to worry. She hadn't seen Aquata at all, which got her wondering where she was. Ayla was now still in her small cage looking down at the food they gave her, which was pretty much leftovers. She pushed her food away with her tail and curled up. She was about to fall asleep when she heard a door open. Ayla lazily opened her eyes and looked to see who had opened the door. A young girl had walked through the door with another plate full of food.

"Hello? It's me Ymke..." The girl questioned as she looked around before walking over to Ayla's cage.

Ayla growled and turned away from the girl. This girl was the only person who seemed to be bringing her food.

"Ah, you're here! I brought you food..." She said and sat down in front of the cage, setting the food down in front of her.

Ayla huffed and looked down at the food with no interest.

"So...what's it like being a Halfling? Do you have a name? What is it like to fly?" Ymke asked, not noticing Ayla's expression.

Ayla growled and went into a defensive stance.

"Okay, I'm going..." Ymke mumbled as she quickly stood up and headed out the door.

Ayla sighed in relief and curled up again. She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep, which she eventually did.

The next day, Ymke came back again with yet another plate of disgusting food. Did they really expect her to eat this stuff? Ymke, yet again, asked her a few more questions but left again when Ayla growled at her. This routine continued for about a few days until one day, Ymke actually brought her something that she would actually eat. Ymke set the food down in front of Ayla and sat down near the cage.

Ayla looked at Ymke with her eyes narrowed for a moment before she began to eat the food that was placed in front of her. As Ayla was eating, Ymke was watching her in a curious way.

When Ayla was finished she looked over at Ymke with a satisfied look. Ymke tilted her head to the side as well as Ayla. She then slowly walked over to where Ayla was.

Ayla stayed where she was, watching Ymke with her ears perked up.

"H-Hey there...I-I'm not going to hurt you." Ymke stuttered.

Ayla tilted her head to the side, examining the girl to see if she was telling the truth. 'She doesn't have any weapons on, so she must be telling the truth." She thought.

Ymke smiled when Ayla didn't growl at her.

"I just want to know if you're okay. I saw that your wing was hurt." Ymke added and sat down.

"M-My wing does hurt..." Ayla answered in a quiet tone.

Ymke was surprised to hear that she had finally spoken but kept calm, she didn't want to frighten Ayla in any way.

"Hm...maybe I can ask one of the healers if they can fix it for you." Ymke explained.

"But...h-healers might attack me." Ayla told her.

"Oh, right. You're a Halfling." Ymke mumbled. That's when she heard someone yell her name.

"Hey, I got to go. I'll come back tomorrow." Ymke reassured and ran out of the room.

Ayla was sitting in her cage, looking around anxiously. She was worried about what was happening back at her home and where Aquata was. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door opened. Ymke came in with some food in her hand.

She would give the food to Ayla and waited patiently for her to finish eating. Once she was done, the two would (sort of) talk about different topics. Most of it was about Ayla's broken wings and how they would fix it. Their conversation would end when Ymke heard her name being called. The two continued to do this for a few days, each day their unknown friendship would grow. Ymke then decided that she should let Ayla out of her cage once in awhie. It was a lot of trouble with getting the key while not being noticed by the other people on the ship.

One day, Ymke walked into the room with the key to the cage, as usual. She unlocked the cage, allowing Ayla to roam around the room that her cage was placed in. She didn't quite notice that there was another person in the room who was standing next to Ymke.

After roaming around for a few moments, Ayla made her way to Ymke. She then finally noticed the other person in the room and immediately growled at them, her eyes becoming slits and her ears went flat against her head. She then covered Ymke with her good wing.

"U-Um, Ymke? C-Can you do something?" The person asked, nervously looking at the now angered Ayla.

"Hm...I'm not sure if I can..." Ymke joked with a smile.

"Ymke!" The person hissed, glaring towards Ymke even though he couldn't see her.

"Okay. Okay. Calm down." Ymke said and rolled her eyes.

Ayla continued to growl at the person.

"Ayla, it's okay. He's a friend, he won't hurt you. I promise." Ymke explained in a calm tone.

Ayla looked at Ymke then at the person. She huffed and her eyes became round again while her ears perked back up.

"That's better." Ymke said in a happy tone.

The person then cleared his throat, earning Ymke's attention. "Would you like to introduce me to your friend?" He asked.

"Oh right! Rusty, this is Ayla. Ayla, this is my friend Rusty." Ymke told the two.

"Hello there." Rusty greeted.

Ayla huffed and walked over to the corner of the room.

"Yeah, I guess she wasn't thrilled that you came unexpectedly." Ymke explained.

"I can tell. So what are we going to do with her?" Rusty asked, Ymke had explained everything that had happened but purposely left out a few parts.

"Well, I was thinking that we could stay on the next island that we visit. If the island has a forest, we can stay there in the meantime." Ymke explained, looking at Ayla for a moment before looking back at Rusty.

"So, how are we going to fix her wing?" Rusty asked, gesturing to Ayla.

"I'll find a way..." Ymke answered in a quiet tone.

Rusty nodded and looked over to Ayla. He didn't really liked to see anyone sad or injured.

Ayla was curled up against the wall, looking down at her broken wing helplessly.

Rusty sighed and felt bad for the poor creature. He looked at Ymke who seemed to be busy with her own thing. He quickly made his way over to Ayla. Said Halfling looked at Rusty with a nervous look.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to see your wing." Rusty explained, noticing Ayla's nervous look.

Ayla narrowed her eyes and looked at Rusty, as if she was checking to see if he was lying. After a moment of examination, Ayla slowly lifted her wing, but still seemed hesitant about letting a wingless see her wing. But, if this wingless didn't hurt Ymke, she assumed he was okay.

Rusty smiled and looked at her wing. Her wing had a large cut in the middle of it and one of her wing bones was out of place. Rusty winced when he saw this. He reached out to touch her wing but quickly pulled back.

"Thank you for letting me see your wing." Rusty told Ayla and walked to Ymke.

Ymke seemed to be in the middle of thinking. Rusty gently tapped her shoulder to get her attention. Ymke flinched at his touch and looked at Rusty.

"Oh, sorry, did I blank out again?" Ymke asked, receiving a nod from Rusty.

Just then, they felt the boat stop.

"We're here!" Ymke exclaimed and looked towards Ayla.

I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if this felt rushed or is bad in any way. Again, I apologize for not updating for awhile, I'll try to update as much as possible. Until next time, Ride On Dragon Riders!

~AI